Few would have expected 2011’s reboot film Rise of the Planet of the Apes to spawn one of the best movie franchises of the last decade, but thanks to incredible special effects and a gripping cast of characters, that’s exactly what it did

Few would have expected 2011’s reboot film Rise of the Planet of the Apes to spawn one of the best movie franchises of the last decade, but thanks to incredible special effects and a gripping cast of characters, that’s exactly what it did

After years of stalled attempts at adapting Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s novel Good Omens, the pair’s 1990 story about an angel and a demon attempting to prevent the end of the world is finally headed to the screen — and it has one heck of a cast assembled to tell the story.

Primetime Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award winner Jon Hamm (Mad Men, Baby Driver) has joined the cast of the Amazon and BBC Two miniseries. He joins already announced cast members David Tennant (Doctor Who, Jessica Jones) and Michael Sheen (Masters of Sex, The Special Relationship), who are set to play the demon Crowley and the angel Aziraphale, respectively.

Hamm is expected to play the archangel Gabriel — who serves as the primary messenger of God in the story.

“[Gabriel] is everything that Aziraphale isn’t: he’s tall, good-looking, charismatic and impeccably dressed,” explained Gaiman (American Gods) of Hamm’s character and casting in a statement. “We were fortunate that Jon Hamm was available, given that he is already all of these things without even having to act. We were even more fortunate that he’s a fan of the books and a remarkable actor.”

Gaiman and Pratchett’s tale chronicled the efforts of Crowley and Aziraphale to sabotage the impending apocalypse due to their affinity for life on Earth among humans. After learning of the birth of the Antichrist — the herald of the end of the world — the unlikely partners are determined to prevent the prophecies of the “End Times” from coming true and preserve their comfortable existence on Earth.

The angel Gabriel only plays a small role in the original novel, but Gaiman — who serves as writer and showrunner on the series — explained why the character will be expanded for the adaptation.

“Once we had finished writing Good Omens, back in the dawn of prehistory, Terry Pratchett and I started plotting a sequel,” he recalled. “There would have been a lot of angels in the sequel. When Good Omens was first published and was snapped up for the first time by Hollywood, Terry and I took joy in introducing our angels into the plot of a movie that was never made. So when, almost 30 years later, I started writing Good Omens for TV, one thing I knew was that our angels would have to be in there.”

The adaptation of Gaiman and Pratt’s novel will unfold over six episodes and is already in production. The series is directed and executive produced by Douglas Mackinnon, who won an Emmy for directing 2016’s Sherlock: The Abominable Bride television movie and also directed episodes of Doctor Who and Outlander.

The miniseries will premiere on Amazon Prime in 200 countries in 2019, and will later air on BBC Two in the U.K.

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